WASHINGTON, July 27. /TASS/. The Russian economy is recovering from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic at a faster pace than expected, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said in a special press briefing on Tuesday.

“In the case of Russia, we have seen a faster recovery. So GDP growth in the first quarter is <...> stronger than expected and because of that led to an upgrade,” Gopinath said.

Russian GDP growth will be 4.4% in 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said earlier in its Global Economic Development Prospects report. The IMF has improved its estimate for this year by 0.6 percentage points from its April report.

At the same time, the Fund revised its outlook for 2022 down to 3.1% from 3.8% in April. IMF experts also changed their assessment of the economic slowdown in Russia in 2020 from 3% to 3.1%.

“Of course there are still challenges ahead, the pandemic is not over, we have seen cases go up, vaccination rates <..> progress but coverage is still incomplete. So much remains to be done on that front,” she noted.

“The recovery is happening sooner than expected. As already mentioned, we are seeing signs of this strength, and it is not only the manufacturing sector but also the reopening of the economy and the strength of the service sector,” said said Petya Koeva Brooks, said the deputy director of the IMF’s Strategy, Policy and Review Department.